Seeing Chevron.

Turn your boring old lamp into a fantastic showcase piece, chevron-ed out to perfection.

 

What You'll Need:

-Ugly Lamp :)                       -Masking Tape                 -Standard Ruler

-Triangle                               -Plastic Bag                      -Sponge

-Spray Paint                          -Acrylic Paint                   -White Colored Pencil
(for the base)                                               (for the shade)


Step 1: Cleaning Your Lamp Shade:
In my case, the shade had collected a lot of dust, so I just lightly dampened an old sponge and wiped it down until the water ran clean, rinsing it out every couple of minutes.  Then let your lamp shade dry for about 20 minutes to ensure it has dried all the way through and won't mess with the adhesive on the tape. 

In the process of cleaning, You can see how dusty the lamp shade had gotten over time.

So fresh and so clean. 

Step 2: Marking off the shade:
First thing you need to do is mark the exact center of the top and bottom each side of the shade and connect it with a straight line.

 Then starting from the top, mark down every couple of inches (varies depending on how large your shade is)

Next, use your triangle to carry the lines across from the center line markers you have made.

Step 3:  Taping Off:
The horizontal lines you have made are to make sure you're tape lines are fairly even.  They will act as the markers for the bottom of each zig-zag.  It doesn't have to be absolutely spot on perfect, the mere fact that the edges are straight well make very precise and even enough. 

Step 4: (The Fun Part) Painting the shade:

Here is where you finally get to paint the shade, taking the thickest acrylic paint you can find, paint in fast, even strokes from tape to shade, to prevent as much bleeding as possible. Once you have a base coat done, let it dry for 30 minutes before applying a second coat, make sure to take it for a test run, and turn on the lamp to see any imperfections in paint thickness.

Step 5: Painting the base:
Now before you go to town on this step, make sure you cover the section that holds the light bulb with a plastic bag, tied off in a knot.  Then spray paint away.  One coat at a time until you get your desired darkness.  In my case, I was re-painting my base from bronze to silver.  

Step 5: Seeing your amazing handy work complete:  
Once your base and shade have dried, remove your tape, and remove the plastic bag to reveal your amazing new lamp!